Ref's Column: Women referees Chapman and Massey set a great example

What a great summer of football on television with the Confederations Cup and the Women’s European Cup.

What, you didn’t watch it?!

The referees were all women and what a great job they did.

I was particularly impressed with Bibrania Steinhaus of Germany, superbly fit, always close to the action and with a smile on her face.

She couldn’t referee the final because Germany were in it once again, this time beating Norway 1-0.

That game was refereed with skill by 39-year-old Cristina Durcioman of Romania, who has been an international referee since 2002 handling over 60 UEFA fixtures. One of her assistant referees incidentally was Sian Massey, of England, whose promotion to the Premier League brought about the sacking of Andy Gray and Richard Keys from Sky Sports.

The England’s women team, despite high hopes, failed badly but the FA’s involvement in women’s football in this country has been changeable to say the least. They often boast about their achievement in popularising the sport for women, but it was the FA who tried to stop women playing football.

Women’s football goes back to 1895 and was very popular before, during and just after WWI. I remember George Rumsey, an old Reading referee, telling me years ago how he had run the line to a women’s match at Elm Park in 1920.

That was the year of an extraordinary attendance at a women’s football game.

They had to close the gates at Everton’s ground at Goodison Park on Boxing Day with 53,000 crammed on the terraces and 14,000 locked outside.

In 1921, however, the FA banned women’s football being played at grounds of any affiliated club as they considered it was an unsuitable sport for women. It wasn’t until 1970 that the FA lifted its ban on women playing matches on registered clubs’ grounds, but there was no reprieve for women wanting to become referees.

The first woman to take the referee’s course in Reading was Janice Stanley, a PE teacher from Tilehurst, whose father, George Fenn, was a local referee.

Although Janice achieved the top marks in the exam, she was not allowed to become a referee but received a certificate instead.

This was in 1975, which ironically was the year the Sex Discrimination Act was passed. The FA bowed to this and the following year, Wendy Prior, who played football for Reading and Bracknell Ladies, passed the exam and went on to referee men’s football.

I’m sure there are still some ex-players of local Reading teams who will remember Wendy as a good referee.

Women’s football was still outside the FA, however, and when I invited Pat Gregory, chairwoman of the Women’s FA, to speak at a meeting of the Reading Referees’ Association in 1982, I ashamedly had to apologise to her when half the members left before she began to speak.

In 1993, the FA took over women’s football and all has been forgotten.

Although over the age of 13 the sexes cannot play football together, there are no restrictions for women referees.

Locally, our highest achiever has been Alison Chapman, who refereed senior men’s football and became a FIFA woman’s assistant referee.

Some local women footballers have told me they read this column, so I would say if playing is getting hard, why not think about refereeing? Chapman and Massey have shown what can be achieved. There are no longer any barriers to overcome.